A new kind of love story about flipping houses, taking risks, and landing that special someone who’s move-in ready…

SHE’S GOT CURB APPEAL

Rian Sutter grew up with the finer things in life. Spending summers in The Hamptons was a normal occurrence for her until her parents lost everything years ago. Now Rian and her sister are getting their life, and finances, back on track through real estate. Not only do they buy and sell houses to the rich and famous, but they finally have the capital to flip their very own beachfront property. But when she inadvertently catches the attention of a sexy stranger who snaps up every house from under her, all bets are off…

HE’S A FIXER UPPER

Pierce Whitfield doesn’t normally demo kitchens, install dry wall, or tear apart a beautiful woman’s dreams. He’s just a down-on-his-luck lawyer who needed a break from the city and agreed to help his brother work on a few homes in the Hamptons. When he first meets Rian, the attraction is undeniable. But when they start competing for the same pieces of prime real estate, the early sparks turn into full-blown fireworks. Can these passionate rivals turn up the heat on their budding romance — without burning down the house?

I FLIPPING LOVE YOU, set in the Shacking Up world, follows two people, both working in real estate, who find themselves vying for the same properties in the Hamptons, leading to a sometimes-not-so-friendly competition.

I Flipping Love You is the latest addition to the Shacking Up series by Helena Hunting and it features Amalie’s brother Pierce. Readers of this series will remember Amalie from Hooking Up as she was the heroine in that book. Her brother is a lawyer in Manhattan but after a goof on his part, he’s taking some time off from work to let things cool down and work themselves out.

Now that he’s got a lot of spare time on his hands, he’s in the Hamptons helping his younger brother buy houses and flip them for profit. It is in the Hamptons where he meets Rian Sutter. Her sister hits his prized Tesla and then takes off so he’s been stalking the grocery store where the hit and run happened, in hopes of catching that woman that is responsible for $3k in damages to his car. He catches more than he expected and he’s glad for it because Rian Sutter??? He’s mighty interested in Rian Sutter.

Rian was a strong heroine that has plans. After being stripped of everything and then abandoned by her parents, Rian and her twin sister Marley have only had each other. They have great memories of their grandparents and their grandparent’s mansion in the Hamptons. Rian and Marley have chosen to make a life for themselves in the Hamptons, close to their grandparent’s mansion because Rian has a dream that they’ll work really hard and then the mansion will go up for sale and they’ll buy it and open a B&B. She’s been holding on to that dream for a long time because she wants to hold onto something good from her past. She’s got a secret that she doesn’t like to tell people and while I understood her reasons, it played a part in my annoyance with her character. I’ll get to that a little later.

Pierce has his own stuff going on but he’s focused on the here and the now. He’s really enjoying himself working on these flips with his brothers. They’re buying up beachfront properties, doing little flips on them and renting them out. Becoming a lawyer wasn’t really his idea, it was his father’s idea and he kind of fell into the career path and now that he’s had time away from his day job, he’s starting to think that going his own way is probably what he wants to do. Immediately though, he wants to get to know Rian Sutter. She keeps showing up everywhere that he is and he’s attracted as all get out. He’s not a quitter so he puts in the work.

Pierce and Rian were a fantastic couple and their story kept me laughing from beginning to end. Their story was so much fun. The chemistry was great, the romance was delicious and Pierce, well, he was hot as all get out. I completely adored him. I loved how determined he was where Rian was concerned and I loved getting to know him. He was a great brother, a hilarious man and a dedicated lover. What’s not to love about a guy bringing all of that to the party?

Things were going great in my reading adventure until Rian starts to get her cold feet and the way that she handles the shit that is thrown her way left a bad taste in my mouth and I got pretty pissed at her because she was an awesome heroine and then she went and did something so dumb that I wanted to pull her hair some. Alls well that ends well though because Pierce comes through and just bulldozes over her fears and let’s her know that she won’t be able to push him away because she needs him just as much as he needs her and I was glad that he, at least was able to stand firm in his feelings. He had a lot more faith in them then Rian but other than that, the book was fabulous. Great characters, a charming beachfront romance that will make you laugh, happy sigh and just enjoy the heck out of Helena Hunting’s written word. It would be a great summer read.

From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind?

With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

I’ve been in the mood for some diverse characters and am trying to put together a list of romances featuring Polynesian characters but in the midst of putting that list together, I came across this book. A contemporary YA set in LA, featuring an Asian lead? Count me in.

So, this book features Clara Shin who is a junior at Elysian High School in the Echo Park part of Los Angeles County. She’s known at school as a prankster and she’s always at odds with straight-laced Rose Carver. When things go a little too far at junior prom, Rose and Clara are sentenced to working off their fight on Clara’s father’s food truck, called the KoBra where they serve Korean and Brazillian influenced food. Clara is not happy about this as she’s not one for working over the summer but Rose will whatever it takes to not have this on her permanent record so she’s in.

From the very beginning, Rose and Clara butt heads. And they butt heads over everything, big and small, they argue and then fight and Clara’s Dad has had it. He’s going to make sure that they learn their lesson so he trains them and then he leaves them on their own to run the food truck. Being stuck on a food truck with your least favorite person in town is pure hell and continues to be that way for Clara until they start to get to know each other.

Seeing Clara really come into her own and take a hard look at the way that her life has been up until this point was refreshingly honest. I really enjoyed Clara’s character. Her personality was so L.A. and seeing her grow closer and closer to Rose was fun and meeting Hamlet then seeing him and Clara circle each other was great.

This book was well written. Goo’s depiction of Los Angeles was real, authentic and true. There is a huge Asian population in San Gabriel Valley and it didn’t surprise me at all that Hamlet played basketball (Ha, I’ve been to many an Asian League basketball game in SGV and could totally picture Hamlet there). I even pictured Hamlet as one of my daughter’s friends. The way that Hamlet was described fit my daughter’s friend description really well. I was nodding along to pretty much all of the L.A. bits because L.A. is my hometown and I thought all of that stuff was spot on.

It was really easy for me to connect with this book because I’m a huge fan of Los Angeles and coming of age stories. Clara was a great lead character and I really loved seeing the friendship blossom between her and Rose. I also really enjoyed the little romance that she had going with Hamlet and the positive parenting thing going on??? YESSSSS!!! Far too often, I see a lot of absent parents in YA books so it was nice to see parents who were involved in their children’s lives and showed genuine love for them. All in all, I really enjoyed Clara’s journey of self-discovery in this book and I will definitely be reading more from Maurene Goo. I recommend this book if you’re in the mood for something cute, sweet and funny. This fits the bill quite nicely.

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